Continuity Planning Made Easy
BY
KIRTLAND STOUT AND JANIE XIONG
Q: What is continuity planning?
• A: Continuity planning is the planning and
preparations that enable an organization or enterprise
to continue to function or quickly resume functioning,
even after an unplanned adverse event.
It does not mean that impossible things are suddenly
possible. For example, if a hurricane with the power of
Katerina destroys or floods a building, your continuity
plan likely won’t get you up and running that same day.
But it will enable you to more readily pull your team
together and shorten the process of recovery.
o
o
The VISA BCP
BCP, COOP, and COG are all continuity plans
Creating your plan is a simple process
 At each step along the
way to creating your
plan, you have only one
or two things to do:


Make a decision, and or
Make a list
(Full disclosure: Some
decisions and lists require
considerable thinking)
Creating your continuity plan
 Your department can do all or most of its planning
without opening up the online application.
o
It’s challenging to figure out continuity planning at the
same time you’re figuring out the online application.
 Just use the decision and list process described in
this presentation. It will guide you to think up,
create, and list most of what you will need.
 After you’ve made your decisions and lists, plug the
information into the BCP application.
 Most planners don’t get it 100% right the first time.
But you’ll be revising and improving your plan
annually from now on.
Step 1 – Essential Functions
 Decision: Does this department
provide essential functions or
critical processes? Critical
functions are those processes that,
if interrupted, will adversely
impact the University’s goal of
educating students. Ask: if this
function or process is interrupted,
what impact will it have on the
campus or on another
department?
 List: Make a list
of the critical
processes or
essential
functions your
department
performs.
Step 2 - Resources
 For each critical function,
make a list of the supplies
and equipment required
for your department to do
that function.
 Examples: Hazardous
materials holding facility,
cleaning supplies, flash
drive with certain data on
it, a specific vendor, handheld calculator,
flashlights, etc.
Step 3 - Responders
 Decision: Who does
each of the essential
functions?
 List: Make a list all
persons who do each
essential function, then
include contact
information for them.
(Address, home phone,
cell phone, etc.)
Disaster Service Worker
 California Government
Code Section 3100-3109


All public employees
become Disaster Service
Workers
More information:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov
/cgibin/displaycode?section=
gov&group=0300104000&file=3100-3109
Step 4 - Procedures
• Decision: What
departmental procedures
are (or should be) in place
to accomplish or recover
our critical functions, if
our most inexperienced or
junior member had to do
it?
• List: Create a procedure
that guides a person
through the process of
accomplishing or
recovering each of the
department’s critical
processes.
Note: We have defined four types of
procedures, applicable as
indicated below:
1)
Emergency Action (EA)
procedure
o
Applies to all departments
EOC procedure
2)
o
Applies to only those departments
that send a representative to the EOC
in an emergency
Facilities unavailable
3)
o
Applies to all departments
People unavailable
4)
o
Applies to all departments
Step 5 – Allocate resources
 Decision: What resources
need to be used to
accomplish each critical
function?
 List: For each critical
function, allocate the
specific resources that will
likely be needed to do that
task, taking those
resources (tools,
equipment, vendors) from
the overall list.
Step 6 – Supporting documents
 Decision: What supporting documents should be a
part of our plan?
o
o
What information or documents might we need to refer
or have access to, if we’re not working out of our own
office space or building?
What documents might the most inexperienced member
of our team need in order to accomplish a critical task?
 List: All supporting and reference documents to be
attached to the plan. Note: Each document can be
no larger than 10 megabytes in size.
You’re finished!
 When you get to this step
 At this point you will
in the online application,
stick a fork in yourself –
you’re done
 For the moment.
submit your plan to Risk
Management online.
 RM will help you to
improve the plan with
their wonderfully
thoughtful and insightful
comments.

Printing the plan
 When the plan has been
completed and approved,
you’ll want to print out
copies for key personnel.
 The online application
formulates your plan into a
nice looking Adobe
document perfect for
printing.
 The plan contains personal
information, so think about
who gets a copy of it and
where the copies are kept.
The BCP Application
Open your web browser and go to the
Risk Management Services website
www.rms.csus.edu